THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
53 
CONSERVATIVE PROPAGATION. 
PROBLEMS OF SELLING. 
Read before the Western Association of Nurserymen, by J. R. Mayhew. 
Continued from our last issue. 
A S I have before stated, it is not entirely a question 
of propagation, but a combined question of 
growing and selling. The sales department of 
the nursery trade is divided, with most of us, into two de¬ 
partments, wholesale and retail, and I want to discuss 
the selling end of the business from this point of view. 1 
have found few men in the nursery business who do not 
offer for sale a portion of their growing to other nursery¬ 
men, and I have found, furthermore, few nurserymen 
who have used the discretion in making sales that would 
entitle them to be termed conservative business men. In 
the matter of wholesale trade lists; during the season it 
is our custom to offer through wholesale lists our sur¬ 
plus, prices being based, largely, on what some other fel¬ 
low is asking for trees and plants rather than on the cost 
of production endeavoring always to cut under competi¬ 
tion just enough to get business. These wholesale lists 
stand for nothing, are feelers merely, and in no wise rep¬ 
resent prices at which stock is sold. As one man once 
remarked, these are “asking prices.” The prices at 
which nursery stock is sold over the United States vary 
accrding to the buying ability and selling ability of A 
and B. Very naturally this element should, to a degree, 
enter into the deal, but there is little reason why the ele¬ 
ment of supply and demand and stability of prices, to¬ 
gether with the reliability of parties offering stock, 
should not also enter into the question of wholesale quo¬ 
tations. Wholesale trade lists should mean something. 
If we list 11-16 apple at a specified price per thousand 
and a much less price than that printed is charged 
neither the buyer nor the seller can have a very high re¬ 
gard for the stability and integrity of the business. In 
the matter of uniformity of prices or stability of prices 
there is chaos. We have reasoned that if we could not 
get our prices we would take the other fellow’s. How 
many of you remember having received, each season from 
large dealers, letters asking the question, “What have you 
to offer in strictly bargain prices,” bargain prices 
being in box car letters. Then, how many of you have 
begun to sharpen your pencil and with trade list before 
you have begun to see how much it was possible to mark 
down prices you have printed? Just so long as we 
think the stock we produce is worth nothing, just so long 
will the other fellow be of the same opinion. A nursery¬ 
man who is not willing to pay fair and reasonable prices 
for good stock with which to fill his orders is a “buccan- 
eer,” and the nurseryman who is continuously looking 
for someone to give his stock to, is a fool. We have 
some of both classes engaged in the nursery business. 
Better burn stock up and save the cost of packing. 
Now, I have thought there might be relief along lines 
of co-operation here. The committee already suggested 
would immortalize themselves and save both the buyer 
and the seller thousands of dollars if they could work 
out a plan to bring the buyer and the seller together on a 
stable basis, one that would be reasonable and j ust. Bar¬ 
gain Prices! There has not been a trade list issued in 
the past one hundred years by a reliable nurseryman that 
did not carry bargain prices, and yet few of us expect to 
receive, except in isolated cases, prices for our stock as 
carried in wholesale trade list. Suppose this committee, 
after careful consideration of the question of supply and 
demand, should recommend that certain trees and plants 
of different kinds and grades should bring approximately 
certain prices, and that there seemed available so many 
peach, apple, pear, etc., and that said stock was in the 
hands of named responsible growers. Then, let us ex¬ 
cept the recommendations of the committee and issue our 
trade lists based on their reports, and give or take accord¬ 
ingly. Under present conditions and through present 
methods of hooking orders, the growers depress the mar¬ 
kets months before stock is ready for sale. The plan is, 
get just as much as possible for what we have to sell, but 
under no circumstances lose a sale. Perhaps under the 
plan suggested every one would not feel disposed to co¬ 
operate, and I feel definitely certain this would be true, 
but 1 am inclined to think those who found it desirable 
to enter into such plan would be benefit led and that the 
business as a whole would he conducted on a more stable 
basis. I am not suggesting a combination that would be 
in restraint of trade or that would destroy the individ- 
ualty of competition, but what I am driving at is this, 
Jthat there should be more nearly uniformity of prices and 
that said prices should be based upon cost of production 
and influenced, necessarily, by the laws of supply and 
demand. 
There is much that can be said in criticism of our pol¬ 
icy of sending wholesale trade lists to planters, of the de¬ 
pressing and distressing methods employed by many in 
making retail sales, all of which has a direct bearing on 
the subject under discussion. I will not discuss this 
phase of the question, however, for I have already tres¬ 
passed upon your time. In conclusion, may I gather up 
the ends of my address, tie them together, that you may 
think it over, and even if one of us plants fewer stocks 
another season or asks more for the stock already propa¬ 
gated, we will have been benefitted. 
First, I believe beyond question that we are growing too 
much stock, and that as long as we continue to propagate 
the amount of stock that has been true ot the recent past 
that prices will he depressed. If I am correct, we should 
reduce our growing. To the end that we may retrace 
along conservative lines, I have suggested that we ap¬ 
point a committee whose duty it shall be to determine ap¬ 
proximately tin 1 number of trees needed under normal 
conditions, the report of this committee to he forwarded 
to each member of the association participating under 
the plan, with the committee’s recommendation. 
Second. I have suggested that we concentrate our en- 
